Storm dumps up to 8 inches of snow on eastern NY

A pedestrian walks in Washington Park during a snow storm in Albany, N.Y., on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012. The storm dumped up to 8 inches in the southern Adirondacks while parts of the Mohawk and Hudson Valleys have received 4 to 6 inches, forcing scores of schools to cancel classes or delay their start by two hours.

ALBANY, N.Y. — It finally started to look like winter Thursday in sections of upstate New York where residents haven't had much reason to complain about the weather this season.

A storm dumped up to 8 inches in the southern Adirondacks, while parts of the Mohawk and Hudson Valleys got 4 to 6 inches Thursday, forcing scores of schools to cancel classes or delay their start by two hours and greeting morning commuters with snow-covered vehicles for one of the few times this winter.

The National Weather Service in Albany said the heaviest snowfall was in Fulton County on the Adirondack Park's southern border, where 8 inches had fallen, and in areas of the Mohawk and Hudson valleys that got up to 5 inches. The snow turned to rain later Thursday in most areas of eastern New York, where more snow — up to 6 inches — was forecast for Friday in parts of the Adirondacks.

The snow comes courtesy of a shift of cold air south from Canada, forecasters said.

"We're finally going to get a shot of the cold air to come down here," said Steve DiRienzo, a meteorologist with the weather service in Albany.

Before Thursday's storm, Albany had received 6.5 inches of snow this winter, about 10 inches lower than normal.

Buffalo has had just 5.5 inches of snow this winter, some 40 inches below normal for the second week of January. And in normally snowy Syracuse, where the high hit 49 degrees Wednesday, only 13 inches has fallen so far this winter, compared to an average 54 inches by now. According to the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University, that's the least amount of snow for Syracuse through Jan. 11 since the weather service started keeping records at the airport in 1950.

The weather service in Buffalo has issued winter weather advisories for counties stretching from the Pennsylvania border to the eastern end of Lake Ontario, effective from 4 a.m. until 7 p.m. Friday. The Buffalo area was expected to get hit by lake-effect snow early Friday, with up to 6 inches expected and accumulations up to a foot possible in areas south of the city by Saturday morning.

In central New York, rain is expected to turn to snow early Friday morning, with forecasters calling for up to 8 inches of snow by late afternoon for some areas.

Temperatures will dip into the single digits and teens across the entire upstate region over the weekend. Highs aren't expected to top 20 until Monday in some areas.